Inquisitive, relevant, thought-provoking. A blog for reflection on religion as an element of public life, coordinated by the Centre for Religion, Conflict and Globalisation, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen.

Tag: Gay-rights

This week, French President Francois Hollande signed into law legislation that allows for same sex marriage and child adoption by gay couples. With this act, France became the 14th country in the world recognizing these rights. Yet, the process has been all but plain sailing. Large-scale protests, parliamentary and societal polarization and extensive media coverage …

Today's post shows Ella Sebamalai's reflection on Turkey's accession to the EU. On the one hand she reflects on religion and secularism as part of the public debate, on the other hand she also illustrates the consequences of specific perceptions. In a crisis custody case between the Dutch government and a Turkish migrant family in the …

In Part One of this post, Adriaan van Klinken described the Zambian case of how Ban Ki-moon’s recent call to recognise the human rights of homosexuals was interpreted according to a millennialist worldview, characteristic for Zambian Christianity. In this second post, he will analyse this discourse. I interpret the millennialist rhetoric on homosexuality as a …

Homosexuality is one of the major political issues in our contemporary world. Especially African countries are getting known for their massive public and political rejection of same-sex relationships and “gay rights”. Frequently in the media we hear, for example, about new, stricter legislation on same-sex practices, about people arrested and jailed because of homosexuality-related offences …